Paintfest day 7 - we glimpse the real colour

Over half way through now and we face the most scary bit, prepping and painting the gloss coats. We can put it off no longer, the whole boat sits in the requisite number of layers of undercoat. It looks like the final rub down will not be easy if we are the get rid of the brush marks in the undercoat. A hard day's sanding is in prospect.

We have quite a few shallow indentations where we have rubbed down spots and although they have all had extra dabs of paint I reckon some will remain visible at the end, despite the sanding. Disappointing.

To test out the top coat I painted the front doors, which spend most of their life in the gloom of the cratch so I reckoned that any mistakes would be less visible.

After the thick primers and undercoats, the coach enamel is a revelation. Much thinner, flows readily and very easy to paint with. Although it is thin, the coverage is amazing. It seems to obliterate the undercoat colour easily. I guess that's why you pay all that money for this good paint. It really does the job. So, now we see the main colour of sides of the boat, a dark graphite grey which will be surrounded by a lighter grey border.


Temperatures have been ideal for painting.

Our digital min max thermometer indicates centigrade temperatures in the mid teens for most of the day and a minimum of ten degrees at night. No need to use heaters.

Must press on, see you tomorrow.